to pay the owner perhaps a thousand dollars' forfeit for every day it may remain in their hands after the date they have agreed to finish it.

We have paused in awe and admiration before the Sphinx of the Nile Valley, the tower of Pisa, the magnificent St. Marks of Venice, rightly honoring those who designed and built what were triumphs of man's handiwork in their time, but when we think of the colossal monuments of architectural engineering which are now being executed by American skill and enterprise, these ancient achievements seem but ordinary. The structures of today can truly be called cities in miniature, for the thousands of

offices each contains represent a hundred sorts of vocations. Go from the bottom to the top and you find a dozen kinds of tradespeople, from the fruit vender to the cigar merchant. Few are without a restaurant, some have social clubs, others roof gardens and gymnasiums. The metal composing each would make a mass weighing over 25,000 tons. Their elevator cables may be measured by the mile. Underneath each may be a great horses furnishing heat, light, and the industry where you see the power of 500 electrical energy which shoots the elevators up and down or furnishes the nerve system of this wonderful community. Truly, the sky piercer marks a great epoch.

TEAM motor trucks and steam automobiles are not so popular in America as are gasoline machines, due partly to one maker's holding the basic patents for the accepted style of steam. cars, in which type the steam boiler, as understood in locomotive and stationary boiler practice, is not used, but a flash generator resorted to instead. This generator, roughly, is a series of smalldiameter spiral tubing into which water enters at one end and before reaching the opposite end is not only converted into steam, but superheated to a great extent. The fire for these generators comes from a gasoline flame fed by some form of automatic regulator freeing the driver from all care; and the use of an automatic regulator for controlling the flow of water to the generator further relieves the driver of this function, his duties being solely those of controlling the machine. So great has been the demand for

this style of pleasure car in America that the efforts of its maker have been confined entirely to the production of pleasure cars and the large steam commercial wagon or truck has been neglected. The story in America is largely a repetition of that in Europe, as control of the steam generator patents has for years reposed with one manufacturer and the useful output has been confined to his factory facilities.

It might be asked why a motor car using a locomotive or tubular style of boiler could not be used on pleasure and commercial automobiles and, in anticipating this, reference is made to one or two eastern American builders who are engaged in making such machines. Vehicles of this character offer a variety of troubles, one being the maintenance of a proper water level in the boiler as well as the carrying of a supply of steam on hand which is not looked upon favorably by many motorists. In the generator car a volume of steam is never carried, steam is produced as it is needed

and so the danger of explosions is eliminated.

One country has, however, developed the locomotive type of steam boiler and adapted it to the commercial end of motoring. Naturally this country is England, the home of steam and the fatherland of the imperishable Watt. The steam vehicle in England, generally designated "lorry," is capable of carrying loads of two, three, four, five and seven tons, few machines of greater capacity being allowed, owing to their excessive weight, as they are dangerous in crossing.

en-ton steam wagon will serve to differentiate it entirely from the traction engine to which it bears a slight resemblance. The traction engine, besides being a slowmoving machine, is not built to carry its load, being intended to pull only, and owing to this restriction, is made with large rear wheels with very broad tires which are needed to attain sufficient friction on the road. The broad tire reduces its possible speed and being a pulling agent excessive weight is imperative to give enough road adhesion.

These steam cars, while not closely re

bridges and destructive of road surfaces. The government placed a limit several years ago on the capacity of these machines by stipulating that the machine when empty must not weigh more than three tons, which limit has recently been increased to five tons. This increase has permitted of the manufacture of machines of this weight capable of carrying a seven-ton load.

At first sight the English steam wagon looks very English, with its ponderous lines due to large metal wheels, cumbrous load-carrying body, heavy framework and large upright or locomotive boiler with engine carried in front. A brief trip on one of them proves that it is exceedingly mobile, being capable of maneuvering through crowded places at a good rate of speed and when on open roads or streets of traveling at ten miles an hour. A cursory examination of a sev

lated to traction engines, are vastly different from miniature locomotives. The road wheels are connected with the drive shaft of the engine generally through a system of spur gearing or chains and generally interposed is a change speed gearing which permits the engine to run at a certain speed, but the road wheels to turn at a medium rate on level roads or very slowly when mounting grades, or pulling over-loads. When traveling backwards the custom is to reverse the engine, but a few makers use a reverse gearing, thereby allowing the engine to work in the forward direction. Coal or coke are the fuels generally used, due primarily to the cheap price of these and the high price of gasoline or denatured alcohol. A five-ton wagon consumes $200 worth of coke per year, which, with its annual mileage of 4,000, gives a fuel expense of 5 cents per mile.

Where coal is used the expense is lower, but its use is limited, owing to the road ordinances prohibiting the emission of smoke from vehicles when on the roads.

A variety of unique body styles has originated with steam machines and altogether different from those adopted on gasoline trucks. These bodies are invariably balanced over the back axle, while the motor is located over or in rear of the front axle. Owing to this peculiar location of the body the tipping style is a favorite, as it can be unloaded by tilting the forward end and unlocking the tail board. In general this operation is accomplished by the steam power of the engine through ratchet and gear connections.

The municipal authorities in England have been leading users of steam vehicles employing them as they do in large corporation works where strength and slow speed are twin brothers. Frequently what is termed a trailer is hitched behind the wagon and the load capacity very much increased without endangering the road surface. Besides these requisites suitable to municipal work, the steam machine fills this sphere, as the corporations using several machines engage a competent engineer to care for them. One afternoon a week each machine is overhauled, the boilers are

washed out and all parts of the vehicle examined. With such care machines of this character have already worked constantly for seven or eight years and the computed life of them is from ten to twelve years.

Besides serving as machines of burden the steam vehicle has been utilized in a variety of ways, one being for street sprinkling in large cities. In this capacity it has proved a great economizer. When not so employed the water tank can be removed and a conventional load-carrying platform substituted. Besides serving in these capacities, the milling and brewing industries have offered particularly favorable spheres of operation because with them delivery to a multitude of near-by towns which are beyond the realm of horse usefulness can be made. Delivering direct from maker to retailer eliminates loading and unloading at railroad depots.

Speculation is rife in automobile circles as to the possibilities of these machines in American cities, but as yet not a single maker has seriously taken up their manufacture. Owing to sparsity of population the interurban feature would not appeal to the manufacturer, and should it the poor condition of country roads and suburban streets would forbid it.

HE present year witnessed the opening by the military branch of the United States Government of a War College or school of

advanced instruction that is superior to any similar seat of professional learning possessed by any other nation. For some time past the United States Navy has enjoyed the benefit of an ideal war college, located at Newport, R. I., and now the other arm of the service has been provided with an equally admirable institution where officers of the regular army and the national guard. will be given a post graduate course in military science.

The new Army War College is located at Washington, D. C., on a historic spot on the bank of the Potomac river. Connected with and supplementary to the college proper there have been provided buildings of a model military post, comprising officers' quarters, officers' mess, barracks, a supply depot, store houses for the quarter-master and commissary, etc. The entire project represents an expenditure of more than $2,000,000 for construction.

All the buildings were designed and the grouping arranged by the eminent architects McKim, Meade and White and the whole scheme is truly notable from an architectural standpoint. The War College which alone cost more than $700,000 is accounted one of the most artistic edifices in this country. It is considered the rival in technical perfection of the Library of Congress, perhaps the most beautiful building of its kind in the world. The latest approved form of reinforced concrete construction has been employed and every effort made to provide a thoroughly fire-proof repository for the invaluable library, collection of models and other rare possessions which will have place in the reference archives of the War College.

The beginning of activities at the War College will mark the culmination of the ambitious project for professional military education which was mapped out in the year 1901 by the Honorable Elihu Root, then serving as Secretary of War. With the fulfillment of this ideal there is provided a complete system of military education for American army officers, beginning with the post schools,-located